Google Earth Community: Earth's magnetic field and declination, 1590-2010

Yes, you are right that it takes a while to load. After starting an animation it can take several minutes until all of the frames are loaded and the animation runs smoothly. One can then right-click the button on the left of the time-line to reduce the animation speed.

Regarding the shutting down of Google Earth: I tried it on different computers, and GE consistently crashes after loading about 500 frames, although each frame is only about 60 KB. With about 32 MB in total for all 3 animations, this should not be a problem of limited local computer memory. Changing GE cache sizes also does not help. In order for users to be able to load at least two of the animations in one go, I therefore reduced the frame resolution, and the file 'mainfield.kmz' is now set up in such a way that it loads a frame only for every alternate year. This reduction in size and number of frames also optimizes download times.

In case there is a demand for a further reduced version (one frame every 10 years?), or for a higher resolution version which is less blurred at the geographic poles, please let me know and I will be happy to post it.

-Stefan

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